


Trip and Fall

by Latart0903



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Drug Use, F/M, does accidentally eating a hallucinogenic frog count as drug use?, mentions death of mother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:07:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22495303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Latart0903/pseuds/Latart0903
Summary: It takes a blue frog and a hallucinating bodyguard to make Glory realize how much she cares about Deathbringer.-----The healer nodded her head toward the heap of black dragon on the floor. “I believe he ate a blue frog.”“The ones that cause hallucinations?”“Yes, those ones.”Glory bit back a laugh. A hallucinating reformed assassin? This should be interesting. A pathetic sniffle came from the NightWing as Glory circled around to assess the gravity of the situation.He was cradling a half-eaten banana.-----
Relationships: Deathbringer/Glory (Wings of Fire)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 74





	Trip and Fall

**Author's Note:**

> I know this ship gets some grief because of the unnecessary age gap. All I can say is that their canon banter speaks to my heart. Also I find Deathbringer hilarious. 
> 
> Occurs after/around Book 5/The Brightest Night. References the Assassin Winglet.

Glory settled onto the petal-covered platform, sunlight sending ripples of rejuvenating warmth over her scales. Hyacinth—or was it Hydrangea? Hibiscus?— smiled at her from above, grateful for the optimal spot that Glory had let her and two others have. Glory smiled back, thankful she didn’t have to share her personal space with dragons she barely knew. She nuzzled Silver and closed her eyes letting the rainforest sounds carry her off to sleep: monkeys chattering, waterfalls rushing, birds chirping.

Something was missing. 

Glory’s eyes snapped open. There was no looming presence in the shadows. No annoying dragon humming or whistling to himself. 

Where in three moons was Deathbringer? 

Didn’t he say he’d be back for sun time? Not that she needed him, but he was always here to stand guard while she napped, _after_ he complained about the humidity, laughed at his own jokes, and sang a verse or two of some peculiar song which he insisted would help Glory sleep. There was one NightWing lullaby that involved NightWing eggs falling off of a volcano when the wind blew. Strange morbid dragons. Cute and disarmingly charismatic at times, but strange.

There had to be a logical reason why her bodyguard wasn’t present. Deathbringer was probably still recruiting for and training the royal guard. Or perhaps he was patrolling the perimeter because he didn’t trust others to properly do it. Maybe he’d been distracted by his reflection in a puddle and was admiring his “all-wonderful, all-handsome” features that, for the record, Glory had definitely not noticed. Ever. Maybe once. But that was it. 

Whatever the reason for his absence, Deathbringer could handle himself. And so could Glory. She closed her eyes again but her mind wouldn’t rest. _This dragon interferes with my sun time even when he’s not around._

She gently set Silver down and then glided through the canopy to the forest floor. She was almost immediately met by a NightWing, Liana’s new patrol partner. The dragon bowed with some reluctance before she spoke. “There you are Glory. Sorry, _Queen_ Glory. There’s a bit of a problem. It’s Deathbringer. Your presence is requested at the healers’ hut at once.”

“The healers’ hut?” Glory asked. But her mind had already filled with worst-case scenarios and her chest tightened with panic. _No, nothing can happen to him._ She wouldn’t admit it to his smug face, but she didn’t know what she’d do if something actually happened to him.

Upon entering the hut, she spotted him on the opposite end, lying on the floor with his back toward her. A strange noise was coming from him. Was he… Was he crying? NightWings—aside from Starflight—had feelings?

The healer, a lavender RainWing, was shaking her head in annoyance and patting his back. “You’ll be fine,” she muttered before she noticed Glory. “My Queen.” The healer straightened and nodded her head toward the heap of black dragon on the floor. “I believe he ate a blue frog.”

“The ones that cause hallucinations?”

“Yes, those ones.”

Glory bit back a laugh. A hallucinating reformed assassin? _This should be interesting._ A pathetic sniffle came from the black dragon as Glory circled around to assess the gravity of the situation. 

He was cradling a half-eaten banana.

“Um, are you all right? It’s just a banana. If it came down to a fight, I’m pretty sure you would win.” But one never knew. 

Deathbringer didn’t look up as he admired the yellow fruit. “It’s just that I’ve never had one before. It’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever eaten. It tastes like the sun is shining in my mouth.”

Glory snorted. “The sun is shining in your mouth? Very poetic, Deathbringer.”

At the mention of his name he rolled from his side onto his back to look at Glory. He dropped his magical sunshine banana and his jaw fell open.

“Yep, that’s right, bodyguard. You’re in deep trouble. Shirking responsibilities so you can trip on frogs? Not when my life is allegedly at stake.”

He reached a talon toward her face. “Are you real?”

“What—of course I’m real.” She looked to the healers. They just shrugged and went back to their work, grateful that someone else was here to deal with this hallucinating handful. They’d had enough and were late for sun time. 

Deathbringer’s eyes glittered with tears. “You really do exist,” he sighed. “I can’t believe this is really happening. The dragon of my dreams is real. This is the best day of my life.”

Glory ducked her head. His flirtatious comments were never so direct and without any sort of haughty wit or teasing. “That’s sweet,” she mumbled.

“You are the most beautiful dragon I’ve ever seen.”

“Um, thanks,” Glory said, trying her damnedest to keep her scales from changing color.

“You’ve assassinated my heart.” Deathbringer laughed hysterically. 

“All right, that’s enough.” Glory cut him off before more horrible jokes or cringe-worthy declarations could be made. “How long does it take to wear off?” she asked the healers.

“RainWings know better than to touch those frogs so it’s been a while since this has happened. If I recall, it doesn’t take too long for the hallucinations to stop after touching a single frog. But eating one? That is if he ate only one… That might take longer. I think we had one case a long time ago that took a week to recover.”

_Great…_ “So, what do we do with him?”

“ _We_ don’t do anything,” the healer replied. “ _You_ will just have to watch him and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

_Um, this is Deathbringer, my impetuous self-appointed bodyguard. Have you met him?_ Glory poked the NightWing in the chest. “Can you walk?”

Deathbringer just stared at the roof with glassy eyes. “The hut is on fire.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“But it’s all… green and swirly.”

“Last time I checked fire wasn’t green.”

“But your eyes are.”

“They’re not on fire either.”

“They’re smoldering,” he purred with a grin.

Glory rolled said _smoldering_ eyes. “Can you walk or not?”

“Walk? Sure. I can also crawl. Would you like me to grovel at your feet, dragon of my dreams?” He waggled his scaly brows at her and Glory could have sworn she saw a single sparkle glint off of his fangs when he smiled. 

Unable to keep her scales from turning pink with embarrassment and trying to ignore the side-long glances from the healers, she hissed at him. ”Get up. And stop embarrassing me.” 

His whole body seemed to deflate. “Are you annoyed with me?”

“I’m always annoyed with you, Deathbringer!”

“Oh…” His eyes welled up with tears again. 

“I don’t mean that. Come on, let’s go.”

“Can I save my banana for later?” He held out the fruit like a one-year old RainWing dragonet. Like he wasn’t an adult NightWing that could eat two bunches of bananas and three howler monkeys in one gulp. Carefully wrapping the peel around the remainder of the fruit, Glory set the banana aside and held out a talon to help Deathbringer up and out of the hut. 

He giggled. “We’re holding talons.”

“And now we’re not,” Glory snapped, releasing his as they exited. “Stay close by. And don’t go wandering off.” 

“So bossy,” he giggled again. “I like you.”

Glory decided she’d find a clearing so she could catch a little more sun and not have to worry about Deathbringer falling out of a tree. Or drowning in a pond. Or eating more hallucinogens. Or coming into contact with any other dragons.

“Queen Glory? Slacking on sun time again?” a voice asked. Handsome appeared with a basket of fruit.

“Hi, Handsome. We have a… situation. Deathbringer is walking me through potential weaknesses in our patrol routes,” she replied, praying that Deathbringer wouldn’t open his stupid mouth.

“Ooh, bananas!” Deathbringer piped up from behind her.

_Not sure why I wasted brainpower hoping for something so unlikely._

Handsome looked down at his basket and offered a banana to the NightWing. “I’m so pleased that a NightWing is finally appreciating our cuisine. So much better than killing innocent animals. I’m not sure our reptile and amphibian populations will recover.”

Glory pushed Handsome’s offering away from Deathbringer, not wanting to prolong the interaction. “He just had one.”

“The frogs are good too,” Deathbringer had to comment. Of course.

Handsome looked worried. “Oh, which frogs? The blue ones are—”

“We know,” Glory said as she pulled Deathbringer along. “Thanks Handsome. Good job on… collecting fruit or whatever.”

“When do _I_ get a RainWing name?” Deathbringer asked. “Handsome is a pretty awesome name. Although it’s a bit presumptuous.”

“Well, good thing that name is taken. I don’t think I could handle calling you Handsome. How about… Bothersome? Or Irritating?”

“What about Debonair or… Holy bat guano!”

Glory was about to congratulate Deathbringer on finding the ideal name for himself but when she turned, she found him whirling around in unwarranted panic. “What are you doing?”

“Something is following us!”

She strained her eyes but couldn’t see anything. No camouflaged RainWings or cranky NightWings. Not even a bee. “Are you aware that when you eat a hallucinogenic frog… you hallucinate?”

“There it is again! There’s more!” He then dropped his voice to a whisper. “In the bushes. They’re red and spiky and hovering but they don’t have any wings—”

Glory wanted to bang her head against the nearest tree when she realized what he was overreacting about. “Deathbringer, those are flowers.”

“But flowers don’t talk.”

_Three moons._

On their mission to avoid most of conscious life in the rainforest, Glory was called upon to save Deathbringer from demon butterflies and stalking spiders. Eventually she located a sun-filled clearing with minimal obstacles, far enough from civilization.

Glory curled up on a bed of leaves. “I’m going to sleep a little longer, can I trust you to stay here or do I need to tie you up?”

Cutting through his hallucinating haze, he swung his head around to look at her and with typical Deathbringer cockiness said, “I might like that.”

“Deathbringer, if you make me roll my eyes one more time, I swear…”

“You’ll tie me up?”

“I’ll let Grandeur take over and you can be her bodyguard.”

Even though NightWings clearly did not possess clairvoyant powers, Deathbringer still flashed her that all-knowing grin. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would. Then I could help my friends with the academy and travel with them to facilitate peace negotiations.”

“Then who would cause me unnecessary stress every day? And whom would I moon over? That’s a weird figure of speech. To moon over someone? If you left then I’d have to settle for Jambu—”

“Wait,” Glory interrupted Deathbringer’s rambling. “Jambu?”

“Well, no. But you’re related so I suppose he’d be the next best thing. He’s quite pretty with all that pink. Or is it fuschia? I don’t know. We didn’t learn the idiosyncrasies of color in the Night Kingdom. Everything was gray, black, gray, lava, black. And gray. Actually Jambu’s a little too spacey for me, not exactly the sharpest thorn on the… whatever that painful-looking bush is over there. You’re so smart Glory. You know you’re absolutely perfect, don’t you? If you just need a break from me, you could send me out as your assassin once in a while. I would raze the Sky Kingdom to the ground for you. I would hunt down Scarlet and give you her head on a gold platter, a large spike, or any other shiny or sharp object you desire. I would do anything to make sure that you are safe and happy because I love—Are those trees melting?”

Glory wanted to pretend she hadn’t heard those last few words. Before the melting trees. Or was he about to say, _Because I love killing powerful and important dragons?_ Certainly not _because I love… you._ Glory had slowly grown fond of him but she wasn’t ready to hear those words, wasn’t sure she felt the same way.

“The trees are melting, you have to get out of here! I'll hold them off!” Deathbringer bounded around, ready to fight the imposing flora.

“The trees are not melting. You need to lie down and sleep off that stupid blue frog.”

Deathbringer followed orders, for once, and crouched on the ground a tail’s length away, eyes darting around at the trees. “But they’re—”

“Shh! Nap time.” In her periphery, she watched Deathbringer reluctantly lower his head onto his talons. 

Just as the sun began pulling her back into sleep, Glory was jolted awake by a wall of NightWing scales clumsily brushing against hers. “Sorry,” Deathbringer whispered, sidling up next to her. “Didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“I’ll protect you from the big bad rain forest,” she said. He sighed with contentment and quickly passed out. A moment later, the sun fell behind a large tree and Glory knew she’d missed her opportunity for a proper nap. She considered flying into the canopy to find a better spot but didn’t want to leave Deathbringer. It felt nice to have his strong body next to hers, even though he was completely worthless as a bodyguard at this very moment. And if she moved, she’d risk waking him and having to deal with all his freak outs and babbling and… confessions.

She studied the constellations and galaxies that swirled around the underside of his wings, a mesmerizing and beautiful infinity that would draw her in and keep her forever if she’d only let it. Glory didn’t know why she had to resist his help all the time. Come to think of it, she resisted any help; she was constantly trying to prove that she was capable of taking care of herself. She’d made it this far after all. Although her friends had helped save her from the Talons under the mountain, and although she hadn’t needed her RainWing friends to secure the throne, she never would have become queen without them. And if it hadn’t been for Deathbringer’s quick change of heart… Who knows.

He suddenly grunted and clenched his teeth. At first, Glory figured he was dodging evil butterflies in his sleep. But his expertly trained talons flicked, throwing imaginary razor-sharp discs. His back leg kicked out and his front claws gouged into the earth, grappling with a SkyWing general he’d killed years ago. “Just die already,” he gritted through his teeth.

Did he always dream about the dragons he’d killed? Or was the blue frog—and hopefully not _multiple blue_ frogs—causing the bad dreams? He usually slept nearby, but she’d never heard him fighting nightmares of his past.

His body relaxed for a moment, transitioning from one memory to another and then his talons began to tremble. “No,” he cried. A single tear emerged from the corner of his eye, and not the joyful kind from first bananas or beautiful RainWings.

Glory nudged him but he stayed locked into the nightmare.

“I have to hide her,” he whispered.

“Deathbringer? It’s just a dream.” She shook his body harder to no avail.

“Quickstrike!” he shrieked. 

Glory watched anguish seize Deathbringer’s sleeping face. Quickstrike… Sounded like a NightWing name. He’d never mentioned anything about friends or family. Or an ex. So much for being the dragon of his dreams. Glory decided it definitely wasn’t jealousy that was trying to claw its way out of her ribcage. Maybe it was sadness or emptiness she felt as she pondered Deathbringer’s unknown past. All the years spent alone, hunting his targets, waiting for the perfect moment to strike or practice his unconventional persuasion. 

The last few weeks had been stressful but Glory kicked herself as she searched her recent memories. Not once had she seen him with a NightWing that resembled family or a friend. She was still trying to learn all of the names of the NightWings now living in her rainforest, but she’d never heard the name Quickstrike. And while many NightWings were coming around, the majority of Deathbringer’s tribe regarded him as a traitor. Glory was quite literally all he had and she continuously, albeit half-heartedly, pushed him away. She tamped down the pity in her heart. He wouldn’t want her to pity him. He’d want her to recognize how much he’d changed. For her. And if he couldn’t have her heart, he’d settle for just knowing that he’d done his best to protect someone he believed in.

She put a wing around him, hoping to comfort him on some sort of a subconscious level, and waited until his hallucinatory dreams stopped terrorizing him.

\-----

Clouds began building in the sky, hinting at an approaching storm. As soon as the temperature dropped Deathbringer startled awake, immediately scanned his surroundings, and cursed under his breath when he found himself unprofessionally close to his queen.

“Holy mother of… son of a basalt… I’m terribly sorry,” he sputtered, jumping to his feet.

Glory yawned. “Someone’s feeling better. Or at least acting a little more like themselves.”

“What are you talking about? Wait, did I just nap while on duty? Bodyguards don’t nap. What time is it? Did someone hit me with a tranquilizer dart?”

“Do you remember eating anything strange?” Glory asked, stretching her wings.

“There’s a lot of strange things in this rainforest of yours,” he quipped.

“A blue frog, perhaps? A _hallucinogenic_ one?”

“The blue ones? I thought it was the little yellow ones. So… was I…?”

Glory nodded, trying not to snicker.

“Oh, that’s not good. Flaming dumb ash, of all the stupid things...” He began pacing, avoiding making eye contact with Glory. “Did I do or say anything… incriminating?”

Holding this over his head would bring Glory joy for years to come. “I don’t even know where to start,” she said, failing to hold her laughter in.

He winced. “I don’t want to know.”

“You were afraid of the lilies over there.” She pointed to the direction they’d come from an hour earlier. “And you thought the trees were melting.”

“I’m surprised that you didn’t just let me tumble out of a tree to my demise, or turn me loose in the wild.”

“I seriously considered it after you made me roll my eyes for the seventh time,” Glory teased.

“Thanks for that then. So just seven eye-rolls and some scary flowers? That’s not so bad.”

Glory grinned. “Oh there’s more.”

Deathbringer shifted the direction of the conversation before Glory could rattle off all of the laughable things he’d said or done. “How long was I out of it?”

“A couple hours. You totally interfered with my sun time,” Glory said.

Deathbringer’s eyes grew wide. 

“I’m joking. You know I work instead of napping all the time.”

“No, it’s not that. I… I can’t believe I did that. I put you at risk! I can’t protect you if I’m hallucinating on yellow frogs—”

“ _Blue_ frogs.”

“Blue frogs. Thank you. I will avoid those from now on. Actually I need a list of all animals and plants that could compromise my ability to protect you. By end of day if possible. This can never happen again.”

“It would be great if this didn’t happen again, but I think you’re totally overreacting.”

“Overreacting? Overreacting! What if Scarlet herself had shown up and I was just sitting in the corner yammering on about flowers? I know what you’re going to say. I know you’re going to tell me you can protect yourself but what if something happened to you? Glory, I couldn’t live with myself.” He examined her face, like he was trying to memorize it in case something did happen, and then turned to brood and pace some more as a light rain started. “Any other stupid things I did? Let’s just get it over with.”

“You said you might have to settle for Jambu if I left.”

“Excuse me? Jambu? Like… your brother?” Deathbringer sat and then cocked his head to the side, considering. “I mean, I guess I could do worse if you really will have absolutely nothing to do with me. He _is_ funny. Although I’m usually laughing _at_ him, it would be a very unbalanced relationship. You’re the only dragon that can make me laugh,” he said fondly.

Was now a bad time to let jealous curiosity take over? “What about Quickstrike?”

Deathbringer froze. It was strange to see him so distraught, no humor in his eyes, no smirk on his stupid face. He furrowed his brow and swallowed. “What about her?”

“You said her name in your sleep.”

He took a while to answer, eyes searching for a past he didn’t want to think about. “Quickstrike was my mother.”

Glory’s initial instinct to ask why in Pyrrhia he’d call his mother by her name instead of, you know, _mother_ , but she was going to chalk that one up as another strange NightWing quirk. And then her mind fixated on the word he used: _was._ She was absolutely furious with herself. “I’m sorry, I should have realized. You seemed to be having bad dreams and—I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’ve just never really talked about her. To anyone.”

“Never?”

“Well, I had to inform Morrowseer of her death. All business, that dragon. I think the animus-touched boulder would've been more comforting than he was.”

A four-year old dragonet assassin on his own? Glory almost shuddered thinking about putting Kinkajou in such a position. “That must have been incredibly difficult.”

“After the initial shock I just kept… going and generally avoided thinking about it.”

“What? That sounds awful.”

“I’m quite adept at compartmentalizing. Plus I’m a NightWing. We’re supposed to be cold and unfeeling, right?”

“I don’t think you are.”

He looked into her eyes once again with un-Deathbringer-like seriousness. “Well, luckily her death helped me realize that I shouldn't put my mission above someone I care about. Which is how I find myself standing next to the Queen of the RainWings. And recovering from a trippy rainforest frog incident.”

They stood in the gentle rain in silence until Deathbringer shook out his wings and spoke again. “Well I’m a total killjoy, now aren’t I?”

“It’s all right. We should get back but..." Glory approached tentatively. “If you ever want to talk about your mother, about _anything_ , I’m here.”

“Thanks. I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about her yet, but I’ll come to you when I’m ready.”

Glory smiled and intertwined her tail with his. It didn’t feel like enough, so she placed one talon over his and squeezed. “Maybe you need to let others take care of you once in a while.”

“Look who’s talking,” Deathbringer bantered, trying not to get excited about the physical contact and unable to keep his smile under control. 

Glory thought she heard a small pout escape from the black dragon when she released his talon. She needed to get back to the village, knew that others would be looking for her. But she wanted to stay in this moment they’d carved for themselves, walls topped with a mutually ferocious compulsion to protect one another. 

They were two dragons shaped and hardened by the war with nowhere they truly belonged except for the dark and guarded corners of each other’s hearts.

\-----

Glory led the way back, winding through the dense foliage. “You know,” Deathbringer piped up from behind, “it might look a little suspicious. The two of us returning to the village from an undisclosed location for an extended period of time. Might look like we sneaked off during nap time.”

“You can’t see this but I’m rolling my eyes,” Glory called back.

“Eight eye-rolls. I’m out.”

“Exactly.”

“Welp, I guess I’ll be sitting next to Jambu at dinner tonight. What’s his favorite flower?”

Glory snickered and slowed to walk alongside Deathbringer. “I think he likes passion flowers.”

Deathbringer grimaced. “A touch _suggestive_ , don’t you think.”

“I like flowers, too,” Glory complained, surprised at how quickly the words escaped before she could second-guess them.

“I’ve considered it but I assumed you would shoot it with venom and hand back a mutilated, hissing mess and tell me you think flowers are too girly and unoriginal.”

Glory considered. “Can’t say I’d rule it out. But it’s worth a try.”

Deathbringer narrowed his eyes at her while a smile crept across his face. “Challenge accepted.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please accept for your consideration, Jambringer...or Deathbu? Ok, bye
> 
> Also my little deathbro has a [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5zVBjNrBuSg3kGXEgopTST?si=SCo-IJ9PQ0yChhJjmG1J9w) because it was that or do dishes


End file.
